Search Results for 'Tom Cunniffe'

Management continuously search for the edge when preparing teams. And because they do, there will always be a variety of opportunists offering their services in the hope of cashing in on the back of a successful outfit. I have fallen into the trap myself, when I got a call from a ‘friend’ championing the quality of a sports psychologist. He came so highly recommended that I couldn’t wait to unleash him on the football squad. I recall sitting back at the rear of the room with a few fellow selectors. Within minutes we realised we had a dud on our hands. Out of respect we allowed him to complete his gig that particular time, but cancelled the remaining five sessions that were supposed to complete the package. My message to unsuspecting managers is to be careful of the articulate incompetent.

John O'Mahony named his squad for the championship on Monday, there were no major surprises in the 30 men named, with Belmullet's Billy Joe Padden the only man who wasn't involved in action so far this year coming back into contention. O'Mahony now has 33 days to get his team ready for Sligo in the Connacht championship opener.

Breaffy 2-12       Castlebar Mitchels 2-11

The last time Mayo made the trip to Cork in the National Football League, they came out of Páirc Uí Rinn with a slender one point win and one foot in a league semi-final and consigned the Rebels to division two football for the next season. A lot has changed in the past two seasons since then for Mayo. Only five of the team that lined out that night started for Mayo in their last National Football League game against Monaghan; Liam O’Malley, Keith Higgins, Conor Mortimer, Andy Moran, and Alan Dillon. Mark Ronaldson came on as a sub three years ago as he did against Monaghan. Kenneth O’Malley, who was between the posts that night, is still involved in the panel as is Pat Harte, and the injured duo of Peadar Gardiner and Aidan Kilcoyne who also made an appearance in that game, the likes of James Kilcullen, Enda Devenney, Ger Brady, and Aidan Campbell who all started have fallen by the wayside, along with Marty McNicholas who kicked 0-2 that day after coming off the bench. David Heaney and Kevin O’Neill have both retired from the game.

Ever since Joe McQuillian blew his final whistle in Croke Park last August and brought Mayo’s 2009 season to a shuddering end at the hands of Meath, all minds have been set firmly on the start of the national league and Mayo’s next crack at an All-Ireland run. The FBD league has run its course to a final spot against Galway at the end of the month, but Sunday’s game against the old enemy is where it all really begins again. While the lights may have been extinguished on this fixture by planning issues, there should still be plenty of fireworks on the field when the sides go head to head on Sunday in a game where both sides have a lot of questions to answer about each other.

It has been a wonderful change over the past few mornings to look out from around 7.20am on and see some brightness and light to help you scoff down the porridge, toast and tea before dashing out the door for work. And the really noticeable stretch in the evenings definitely adds a pep to your step as you hit the training fields or head for a good jaunty walk or jog. With winter's darkness practically in our rear-view mirror and next Sunday heralding the start of spring, it is time for us to start checking out the new faces on the county panels and see if all the old stagers are back in the fold and if they are carrying any excess baggage around the midriff and buttocks. Are the young guns up to the job in hand and is there another year or two in the auld lads? Those are the questions that will be up for debate over the coming few weeks.

On the weekend of a championship match Jury’s Hotel, Croke Park is normally buzzing with animated followers of all the participating teams and last weekend was no exception. I was there early as I had overnighted in the capital and I made my way to the hotel to soak up the atmosphere hours before the game. I mingled with a number of Cork supporters chatting about the match and, to a man, they were hugely confident of their chances against Tyrone. They talked about the maturity of the team this year, the options off the bench and the aerial dominance they had at midfield. A number of them suggested that, not alone would they beat Tyrone, but that they had availed of the 7/2 on offer from most bookmakers on Cork to win the All-Ireland. After engaging them in conversation and having the crack with several of them I must admit that they had me convinced, too, that they were the team to beat this year. Jack O’Connor and Ger O’Keeffe arrived at the hotel. There was a rush of eager youngsters to Jack looking for autographs and he was as courteous as one would expect from a GAA manager, spending time chatting and encouraging all of them. Jack’s son was playing on the Kerry minor team later and he was anxious to have some food before heading across to Croker. We chatted for a while with the ever attentive hotel manager, who incidentally is a Kerryman, and had food organised for the boys. They had played golf somewhere between Kerry and Dublin on the Saturday afternoon and O’Connor was as excited as a young lad with a new toy as he described how he hammered O’Keeffe in a game of ‘skins’ (golfers will understand what I am talking about here). I suggested that a Cork victory over Tyrone wouldn’t necessarily be the result that Jack would prefer. It was widely acknowledged that the Kerry lads would have loved a crack at Tyrone in an All-Ireland this year, bearing in mind their record against the current champions. He didn’t disagree and acknowledged that if Kerry got to a final against Tyrone, his job from a motivational perspective would’ve been a lot easier.

Time has ticked by very quickly since Mayo took their final bow in the championship for 2008 on a warm August Saturday in Croke Park, slipping out of the championship at the hands of the eventual winners, Tyrone, by a solitary point. And with Cormac Reilly’s final whistle that day attention turned to 2009 and the talk of the pubs and sidelines as to what went wrong over the past two years. Well one thing is for sure, John O’Mahony is still in the hot seat and will remain there for the next couple of years after being given a new deal in the autumn. Who will make up his side this Sunday and for the rest of the year will be talking points for the next few weeks as a side begins to take shape as the opening rounds of the National League slip by.

It has been a wonderful change over the past few mornings to look out from around 7.20am on and see some brightness and light to help you scoff down the porridge, toast and tea before dashing out the door for work. And the really noticeable stretch in the evenings definitely adds a pep to your step as you hit the training fields or head for a good jaunty walk or jog.

For the second in row Mayo started off the National League with a defeat at the hands of Derry, this time in James Stephen’s Park last Sunday. While both sides hit 10 scores the decisive score of the game came from Derry debutant James Kielt 45 minutes into the contest, who got on the end of move that came about as Tom Cunniffe lost possession trying to break out of defence.